Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 54(3) September 1997 167 Case 3049 Cnemidophorus neomexicanus Lowe & Zweifel, 1952 (Reptilia, Squamata): proposed conservation of the specific name Hobart M. Smith', Harry L. Taylor, James M. Walker^, Ralph W. Axtell"*, Steven J. Beaupre^, David Chiszar^, James E. Cordes*, Julio A. Lemos-EspinaP, Andrew H. Price^, Frank van Breukelen' & Richard G. Zweifer (Addresses on p. 171) Abstract. The purpose of this application is to conserve the specific name of Cnemidophorus neomexicaims Lowe & Zweifel, 1 952 for a parthenogenetic whiptail lizard (family teiidae) from the southwestern United States. The name has been unambiguously applied to the species and has been in consistent use for the last 30 years. However, it is threatened by C. perplexus Baird & Girard, 1852, the application of which has long been ambiguous and contentious. Keywords. Nomenclature; taxonomy; Reptilia; Squamata; whiptail lizards; teiidae; Cnemidophorus neomexicanus; southwestern United States. 1 . The status of the specific name of Cnemidophorus perplexus Baird & Girard, 1852 has long been questioned but has never been explicitly resolved. During its 145-year history the name has been applied to virtually every species of the C. sexlineaius (Linnaeus, 1766) group in the southwestern United States (see Wright, 1969). The specimen which since 1931 has been accepted as the lectotype has been variously interpreted since 1967 as unidentifiable, or as a hybrid from a parthenogenetic-bisexual union, or as a parthenogenetic species later described as Cnemidophorus neomexicanus Lowe & Zweifel, 1952. During the last 30 years the name perplexus has been abandoned and neomexicanus has consistently been used. As a group interested in the taxonomy of the genus Cnemidophorus in the southwestern United States we propose that perplexus be suppressed. 2. In 1852 Baird & Girard (p. 128) briefly described the new species Cnemido-phorus perplexus on the basis of several specimens (as indicated by citation of a number of localities) in the 'Museum of the Smithsonian Institution', but without citation of their catalog numbers. The three localities were given as 'Valley of the Rio San Pedro of the Rio Grande del Norte. Specimens were also collected by Gen. Churchill, on the Rio Grande west of San Antonia [sic], Texas, and by Dr William Gambel on his last journey to California'. The localities and collectors cited have enabled subsequent workers to determine with reasonable certainty on which specimens Baird & Girard (1852) based the name but, inasmuch as two species are represented among the four supposed syntypes now extant, application of the name has rested upon subsequent designation of a lectotype. 3. Much argument has ensued regarding the earliest acceptable designation of a lectotype for Cnemidophorus perplexus. Axtell (1981) cogently argued that Baird ( 1 859, p. 10) regarded USNM 3020 (now lost) as the type because this is the first listed
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